My thoughts on the current state of DCI and its relation to music education.

If you're here to read about something Korean, just skip this post. In fact, if the letters DCI mean nothing to you, this post will be of no interest to you. However, I spent a lot of time typing this up on the band forums, and I wanted to give any interested parties a chance to read about my thoughts on this issue.

DCI was formed out of necessity, but (in my opinion) has been doing far more bad than good for the activity in the past 15 years. Consider these questions.

How many corps have folded?
How many kids are participating in the activity?
How much influence do a few people have versus the many?
How many smaller corps are there?

The fact is, DCI has done nothing for the activity but drive costs up and widen the divide between the haves and have nots. You've got staffs (staves?) full of people who couldn't hack it on the professional circuit or who failed in broadway trying to impart their "artistic vision" on a group of young people.

In my opinion, drum corps should be something that is directed towards the entertainment of the audience. Do you think a drum corps audience of today walks away from a show as entertained as they did 15 years ago? Well, you may argue, even though the music is not as interesting to the audience, the members are getting a better musical education through playing original works.

Drum corps is not music education.

Drum corps develops good work discipline and provides a wealth of performance experience, but playing the same ten minutes of music all summer long is in no way a substitute for a curriculum that will increase your ability as a musician through playing a repertoire of different works, studying theory, aural skills, etc.

A summer at Interlochen is music education. A summer with DCI is not.

However, I'm not knocking drum corps because it's not music education. It shouldn't be. Drum corps should be a chance for young people who are driven enough to rehearse all through the hot summer to push themselves to perform a show to the best of their ability. The kids always have been and always will do that. It's the people in charge and their "artistic vision" that leads to glazed over stares from the audience who are the problem.

Playing original music when you're The Cadets is fine. You're big enough and have enough talent to make it interesting. A voiceover? Ok, you're The Cadets. The audience will still applaud.

However, if you're a small corps, you want to be like one of the big boys. Your staff comes from people who want to eventually work for The Cadets. They want to have their "Artistic Vision." Guess how well that corps is going to go over with the audience? And if I busted my butt all summer to perform this show, how the audience responds is going to make all the difference in the world to me. I couldn't care less about imparting some greater "Artistic Vision." So I have two choices:

1. Drop out of drum corps.
2. Move up to a top 12 corps.

Sadly, that's the state of DCI right now. You've got small corps trying to mimic the repertoire of larger corps who can only get away with the music they're playing because they have the talent (artificially increased by the numbers flooding in from smaller corps) and the money (to buy a staff who is top of the line.)

Maybe you don't think DCI is in trouble. Maybe you think all the shows are great. Maybe you like this new direction. But the numbers don't lie. The top corps need the lower corps just as much as vice versa. Whenever you see the dramatic decrease in numbers for the activity, it can only spell doom for the organization.